1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a ground joint connector and to a wiring harness using this joint connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H05-94980 discloses a compact joint connector used to connect a plurality of ground wires with a grounding portion of a vehicle at once. This ground connector has a housing and a plurality of side by side cavities penetrate the housing in forward and backward directions. Female terminals are insertable into the cavities from behind. A joint terminal has a male terminal portion and a plurality of side by side male terminals projecting from the male terminal portion. A bracket is connected with the rear edge of a male terminal portion and is used to mount the joint connector on a grounding portion with the male terminals insertable into the respective cavities from the front. When the joint terminal is mounted into the housing, the respective male terminals are inserted into the cavities from the front to be accommodated therein in a standby state. Corresponding pairs of male and female terminals are connected by inserting the respective female terminals connected to ends of ground wires into the cavities from behind. The bracket of the joint terminal is fixed to the grounding portion of the vehicle for grounding the respective ground wires at once.
The female terminals at the ends of the ground wires and the corresponding male terminals of the joint terminal are connected in the common cavities of the housing one housing, thereby making the joint connector smaller in size and lighter.
The female terminals at the ends of the ground wires in the above conventional joint connector are inserted into the cavities and are locked and retained by retaining portions. However, the joint connector is not designed to enable the female terminals to be withdrawn from behind. This is because an insertion error (address error) of the female terminal into the cavity need not be corrected since the ground wires are grounded at once. However, it also has been requested to make female terminals withdrawable from a housing for maintenance and collection.
The invention was developed in view of the above situation and aims to make female terminals insertable and withdrawable while using one housing.